Appeal No. 95-3674
Application 08/122,981
This is a decision on appeal under 35 U.S.C. § 134 from
the final rejection of claims 7-13. Claims 1-6 and 14 have
been withdrawn from consideration as being directed to a
non-elected invention.
We reverse.
The disclosed invention is directed to thermoelectric
elements made from "nanoporous" semiconductor material.
Claim 7, the sole independent claim, is reproduced below.2
7. A process of using a nanoporous semiconductor
material in a multiple stage thermoelectric device
including the steps of:
providing a nanoporous semiconductor material;
fabricating p-type and n-type thermoelectric
semiconductor elements from the nanoporous semiconductor
material;
incorporating the p-type and n-type thermoelectric
nanoporous semiconductor elements to provide a peltier
couple whereby when a current is passed through the couple
there is effected a release or requirement of energy due
at least in part to changes in transport energy within the
peltier couple;
mating multiple peltier couples together to form a
multiple stage thermoelectric device whereby energy from
one stage is used as input to the next stage effecting a
larger temperature difference.
The examiner relies on the following references:
We note that claim 7 should have an "and" before the last2
step of "mating." In addition, "peltier" should be capitalized.
- 2 -
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007